This Thread Should Be Deleted

[FloatingDowntheLiffey]

i remember telling someone after FM "jamie said hes on anti-depressants so the next records will probably suck."

but now i am consumed with this weird, naive wish that he be happy and realize its not all one big fucked-up mess. which is not to say its a big garden of roses all the time--but it doesnt have to be a graveyard either. like jamie's life is some cultural/emotional siesmograph or something!!! oh dear--this is beginning to sound obsessive.

i dont know--maybe its my brain tumor.

[FloatingDowntheLiffey]

edit: theres a john gardner paraphrase in there somewhere--sorry not trying to steal anyone else's words for sure

[dr. strangelove]

before i start, i don't mean this as an attack... just some random thoughts/questions:

why do you feel the need to use jamie's artistic perspective as an outlook? i'm confused...

i mean, yes, his music can be depressing, because fucked-up shit happens every day in this world... but then again, doesn't the very act of confronting those issues in art show a lean toward dealing with them? i think it was camus (could have been sartre) who once said that truly nihilistic art was impossible, since the very act of creating that art was in essence a search for an answer

and besides, i'd have to say that jamie is one of the nicest, seemingly happiest people i've ever met. yes, his artistic preoccupations could be deemed depressing, but i wouldn't characterize him as a person the same way i would his art...

ok, i don't know what else to write, so please, respond so i can consider your question/comments further

[liontails]

camus is a good example anyhow considering a lot of his work is not representative of his life

[FloatingDowntheLiffey]

haha hey doc

the seismograph thing was just awful sarcasm--glad to see someones reading their sisyphus though(cant wait for the first dickhead corrects my spelling!)

while i dont believe jamie is a pure nihilist (how could such a thing exist anyway without self-destructing?) and AAAArt may very well be a catharsis for tragedy--this is an awfully functional/masturbatory characterization of......drum roll..... Art. places it kinda between wallpaper and prozac.

while the expression of that horror may put him an inch closer to dealing with it himself (hopefully a side-effect, but either way impossible to speak on), not experiencing it all would bring him miles towards it.

i also didnt say anything about the music--of which i wouldnt change a note--just his personal life. i just wish terrible things wouldnt happen to him. from a purely altruistic superdupergay perspective haha. the fact is, jamie could write a great song about suicide or brain tumors or tsunamis or puppies or mother theresa or that incredible new hexagonal taco from taco bell. to attach the depression/tragedy to him as some enabling encripplement (surely not a word) is misled i think.

an artist whose art (based on a self-defined condition) depends on the horror in his life must, at least subconsciously, seek out that horror in order to fulfill the art--while the man, always self-preserving, seeks happiness. therefore the two are in direct competition.

anyway--nihilism/existentialism in art is neither here nor there. i was simply saying that i hope things look up in his life--for his sake.

*all "him"s refer merely to his persona--as i do not claim to know him personally.

[dr. strangelove]

thanks for the clarification... i've never thought about the fact that since his art depends on horrible things happening, that he must, as you said, "at least subconsciously, seek out that horror in order to fulfill the art"... it's an intriguing concept... would a sudden streak of contentment lead to an inability to further create, or would he feel the need to search for new problems... perhaps it would lead to more focus on external issues? i'm thinking specifically of the more politically charged work, such as "support our troops", which is still a very personal reaction, but a reaction to something not directly affecting his life (i know, that could be argued, as war affects everyone, but you know what i mean)... or could it even lead to self-destructive behaviour... actually pursuing issues to deal with?

but yeah, it'd be nice to know that he is genuinely happy

as for mentioning camus, i wasn't trying to compare xiu xiu/jamie to camus, but rather, i thought the "quotation" was appropriate

as for spelling, i would never attack someone's spelling/grammar, unless their comments were idiotic... my grammar sucks here as well

and one more tangent to throw out there to make this thread demand to be deleted even more... in the "competition" you mentioned that must exist within himself (between artist and human), don't you think that could even be spread out to his fans/admirers... as a person, we hope that he will live a happy, content life, yet as an artist, we hope for more output, which comes from suffering...

[FloatingDowntheLiffey]

yeah exactly--thats what the first comment was going for

unfortunately--should jamie stick to his self-definition--he would have to keep the music "about real things that happen to me or ppl in the band"--i spose he could dissolve "xiu xiu" as it were and call it something else, should he ever see a sunny day haha

i wasnt talking about you correcting my spelling...certain other members of this board have a tendency to squeal over the slightest perceived 'error' like a lobster being dropped into a boiling pot...

[dr. strangelove]

FloatingDowntheLiffey said:

unfortunately--should jamie stick to his self-definition--he would have to keep the music "about real things that happen to me or ppl in the band"--i spose he could dissolve "xiu xiu" as it were and call it something else, should he ever see a sunny day haha

i discussed this with a friend of mine this morning, and she commented that his past is still fair game... and just because he has dealt with a topic once doesn't mean he couldn't deal with the same subject in a drastically different manner... was it van gogh who did like 80 paintings of the same landscape? (i have no idea how many he actually did)

[iamthemillmtnstar]

I found this post interesting so I'd like to add to it. JM Coetzee stated, in his essay The Problem of Evil, "We can put ourselves in peril by what we write, or so I believe. For if what we write has the powere to make us better people then surely it has the power to make us worse." That is to say, by writing about such awful things the writer him/herself may come out of the experience affected. Affected much like the people whom he or she wrote about.

In short, if Jamie writes about something that happened to someone he knows and it was an experience that left them, let's say, deeple scarred or perhaps insane, Jamie himself may be pushed closer to insanity. On the other hand, because Jamie writes about things that happened to himself or those he holds very close all the damage from that experience may have been done. Therefore, he might be able to deal with it perfectly well and venting about the experience in a song may actually heal some wounds.

There's something to ponder, I hope.

[FloatingDowntheLiffey]

the doc advanced the same argument a few posts ago

but, again, i wasnt making a philosophical statement. of course there are numerous solutions to alleviating the pain of tragedy. but i saw a picture of jamie--some press photo of him and caralee--and he just looked so genuinely happy--so childlike--which is in such competition with the person we know from the lps. its was really heartening.

i recently had some major surgery for a life-threatening affliction and came out of it to find that a lot of the stuff that seemed relevant no longer did. some of the depressive sentiments which so reflected a period of my life prior to the surgery just ceased to have anything to do with me. (more than just the old cliche of "getting ones priorities in order" or whatever that expression is.)

depression can be a vortex that feeds itself--and this kind of unspoken fad for things that reflect only the saddest elements of life troubles me. real tragedy like, presumably, what jamie is singing about belies real hurt and isnt something to be aped like some kind of fashion trend. im not saying that applies to anyone here--just the idea of finding a comfort in sadness or frankly accepting that as ones reality is entirely self-defeating (ive been there).

while it is certainly no mean task to overcome such a debilitating state--sometimes it really does take one pulling himself up by the britches to get it going. but then it is different for everyone i spose.

how did we get this off-topic?? haha

[iamthemillmtnstar]

When I first heard Xiu Xiu I actually did think that Jamie would be very somber in real life as well. After reading and especially hearing interviews of him, I thought that he came off as very up-beat and happy.

As for how the topic drifted so far, I have no clue. It was interesting, though.